Triker Bob (Greenspeed)

Bob Devlin has been a Greenspeed enthusiast for many years, and proves that these trikes from Australia truly hold up to the long haul on freedom’s road. Bob and his wife Kathryn live in Jackson, California, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Range. Bob owns an 18,000 sq. ft. fitness center in northern California (New York Fitness), but he wishes to retire from the business, so here is an opportunity for anyone wishing to get into this line of work. His fitness and health pay big dividends when it comes time to go trike exploring!

Bob and his trusty Greenspeed

Bob is a certified personal trainer and has a goal of getting Amador County residents healthy and fit at his fitness center. He also has an MBA in finance has been a Real Estate Broker for 30 years, as well as a licensed Enrolled Agent and tax expert. Prior to moving to Amador County in 1979, Bob was a college instructor in finance, accounting, management and economics in San Francisco. He is an avid runner and plays tennis and racquetball (and he loves to trike every chance he gets).

Kathryn and Bob Devlin, in the company of a lowly trike hobo

Getting ready to ride on a beautiful sunny day

Steve Greene and Bob Devlin pose with trikes on the marina boardwalk.

Here is Bob’s solution for inattentive motorists!

On the road, with plenty of planet to explore

Taking a break on the way to the woods

Being lost in the woods is a wonderful thing …

… especially when it’s the season for blackberry proliferation!

YUM!

The old Greenspeed still has plenty of spunk for many more years, and so does the pilot called Bob, only in his seventies. Trike often – Live long!

Relaxing after a lovely day’s ride

This is how Bob carries the reliable Greenspeed on his petroleum powered wheels. Here is his explanation of this cost-effective custom trike carrier:

I travel from our house in Jackson (Sierra Nevada foothills) to Tucson quite often and quite easily transport the trike on top of our Subaru Impreza. REI quoted me $800 for a bike rack so opted to buy a standard luggage rack and see if I could mount the trike. See picture on my trike (seat is in the trunk) just rolled up on top of the car and secured with bungee cords on the side wheels and a U-Lock (and bungee cord) in the middle. I zip on a few plastic ties for extra protection. Works great though at first it made a wind sound which I cured by wrapping some tape around the front railing.

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By the way, here is an eight minute video of the forest ride pictured above:

Life just doesn’t get any better than that!

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BIONIX ADDED TO BOB’S GREENSPEED

January 2016 Update

FEATURES

Mine is a Bionx S Series with a DV-48V /11.6Ah/555Wh down tube battery (placed on my rear rack) with an S series hub motor with High Torque (HT) and 350W. This was put on my GT-1 Greenspeed with 16” wheels.

ADVANTAGES

Extra boost when you need it (thru intersections, up steep hills, passing up some hotshot that zoomed past you, etc) by using the throttle.

Adds weight to the rear wheel for much better transaction (especially on my Greenspeed as its back wheel spins easily on sand or gravel).

For long uphills, engaging the assist doesn’t pedal for you but adds to your ability to increase your speed. The harder you pedal, the more it helps.

Saves my knees. There are frequent times when I come across a sudden hill and it takes extra pressure on my knees to push over (not enough time to shift down). The throttle allows you to keep spinning instead of forcing yourself over the hills. It’s fun, too.

Using the regenerative option on downhills, I not only recharge the battery but it allows me to keep pedaling where I would just have to coast without it. So I get more exercise and spinning.

DISADVANTAGES

Cost. With installation it was $2,600. You can buy a pretty nice entire trike for that.

Weight. Battery adds about 10 lbs and new hub 7.7 lbs. Lifting the rear end to drag the trike is much more of a challenge. Surprisingly, it has not seemed to slow me down much when I pedal without the assist.

Scorn from some cycle purists. One guy called me a “cheater”.

OTHER NOTES

This battery has enough juice to provide significant help on long trips. So far I have gone 65 miles and it had charge left. It all depends on how much you actually use it, of course.

~

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8 Responses to Triker Bob (Greenspeed)

Can anyone tell me how one has the guts to trike on a road that disappears around the bend with no shoulders? (see blackberry picking picture above) If I had that kind of courage my triking range would expand immeasurably :)

I agree with the commenter above. I am soo chickenhearted. Traffic scares me, and I keep thinking that I’m so low to the ground that someone will just not see me, and run right over me. Gotta get with it, though…

I try to find local roads with very little traffic and the danger diminishes immensely. My two flags and slow sign are pretty hard to miss. Compared to Trike Asylum Steve, I am a real chicken. I think he thrives on the danger.

Not being sure if you live in a country that drives automobiles on the right or left side of the road, I will mention that the blind curve was only blind to traffic coming in the other direction, and that the blackberry pickers were on the side where the road was straight for quite a long distance, and were very visible to motorists a long way off. That photo was also taken with an extreme telephoto lens compression, thus the turn appears close to the riders, when it was actually farther away. Regarding trikes in general, the initial impressions of the dangers are not what I have found to be warranted based on overland triking since 2009. Yes, I do prefer the most rural roads I can find because I love the serenity of nature, but if a cyclist is well equipped with atttention-getting solutions, such as flags and bright colors of clothing/panniers, even riding through urban environments is not a suicide mission. In fact, my experience has repeatedly demonstrated that motorists go out of their way to provide me more room than is necessary. Most of the drivers believe I am physically handicapped in some manner, thus part of the reason for their extensive courtesy. Anyway, cycling is not for everyone, that much is certain. Our thoughts are powerful elements that can keep us from enjoying that which we would prefer to do.

There are tons of bears in these coastal mountains, but fortunately, there are many tons more berries than even the tons of bears can hope to eat. Thus, they don’t mind sharing! It’s like they are all a bunch of teddy bears.

That was one of the most well-done bicycling videos I’ve seen! Really enjoyed the mellow soundtrack also. Some others I’ve seen/heard on YouTube have been so grating I have to mute them. You know you’re on a “backroad” when there’s no centerline! Where was that? Looked like the last scene might have been the harbor at Newport.
Missed you at the Recumbent Retreat last year. Will you be making it this August, 2015?

Thanks for the kudos on the video. Those are fun to produce every now and then. I have also made a couple of more aggressive type movies about speed trikes, but I do prefer these mellow and serene clips. I made one called Tricycle Dream, which is so mellow that you might fall asleep watching it – on my page called Steve’s Trike Movies:

To answer your question about location: That was on the North Fork of the Siuslaw River road, and the farther you ride north on it into the woods, the smaller and more rural the road becomes. After hours of riding, it finally turns to a dirt/gravel combination, but it just keeps on going all the way to the Columbia River if you have a good map (those dirt roads in the Coast Range woods are very extensive and confusing once you’re in there!)

The marina and dock area are in Old Town Florence, similar to Newport, but not nearly as extensive or large. I was fully prepared to attend the 2014 Recumbent Retreat at Fort Stevens, but a shoulder injury knocked me out of the ride – I fell off the side of a deep gorge while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in late July, and messed up my left shoulder. It left me totally unable to even set up a tent or sleeping bag, or even crawl into a tent. It took about 8 weeks to fully heal, and after it did, I made the north coast trip on my 700, about a month after the retreat. So, I was there, but no one else was, ha ha!

All About Tricycles

Steve’s Rural Cop Days

Dan’s Simple Living

William’s Longevity Guide

Mark’s Flute Music CD

Pannier Volume Conversion:

One liter equals 61 cubic inches. Doing the math, if a pair of cargo bags is 60 liters, such as the Arkel RT-60 recumbent panniers, this converts to 3,660 cubic inches (60x61). Pannier manufacturers are known to express size both ways, which can be frustrating to a potential customer attempting to compare two different companies. Visualizing cubic inches may be challenging, thus converting to liters may help the mind's analytical eye.